The Manual to Cute Lifeguards 101
by hobicidal
Summary: Juvia had meant to enjoy herself with her friends at the pool. Really. She had meant to. (But sadly she's a ridiculous tsundere and the lifeguard is hot damn) [edo!gruvia]


**short and somewhat ooc**

 **fanart ( c ) yuuba**

* * *

Juvia doesn't really know – or care – what to expect at the community pool.

Middle aged ladies talking with their children paddling about in front of them, teenagers splashing around in the deep end, the (very hairy) elderly doing backstroke back and forth.

It's probably the sixty-eighth time Lucy has threatened to cut off her hair if she doesn't jump in with her, Wendy, Erza and a shivering Natsu. It's also probably the sixty-eighth time that Juvia has refused to get in.

As Lucy is teetering on the sixty-ninth time, the brown haired life guard on the lifeguard-pool-chair-thing gets up and taps some fat guy slouching (very probably asleep) in the bleachers, and then trots off. The raven-haired man stretches and yawns then stands up and proceeds to…

Strip?

Juvia cringes and proceeds to kick at Lucy, but then as her eyes flicker over to the large clock on the wall of the pool, she manages to catch the unidentified, black-haired male at it again, but it's as if he's undergone some magical girl transformation.

Gone was the pot-belly and disgracefully thick legs, what she sees now is an extremely attractive human being pulling a turtleneck over his head, his t-shirt underneath riding up to expose his naval ( _oh that smooth, smooth naval_ -), but then – to her dismay – he stops there. Juvia shudders as she eyes him cautiously stepping up to sit on the lifeguard chair, fiddling with a pool noodle.

The bluenette scowls (because she actually wants to get into the pool, but you know) at no one in particular and goes back to staring at her toes.

It's almost been two hours of sitting on the bench next to a bunch of bags that ended up next to her as a result of the cubbies being too full to hold more, and Juvia wonders if her squad has some strange power to be able to hand around in a mavisforsaken _pool_ for so long.

As Juvia puts her head in her hands for the umpteenth time and shifts the towel so it hitches up a bit higher to cover more skin, she catches sight of some _skanky hoe_ with pink hair and _tacky_ cat ears ( _like, come on – those aren't even real_ ) flirting with her— wait, not hers, the lifeguard.

At this point, all the girl wants to do is talk to the cute lifeguard, she wants to screech in frustration and pour lava down someone's throat and slowly tear out their intestines while – oh my _Mavis_ , did he just _look_ at her?

With a yelp, Juvia (belly-flops – smooth) falls into the pool, towel and all, and lands in the middle of a wrestling match.

"J-Juvia!" Natsu exclaims pleadingly. "You've finally decided to – _ouch_! Lucy _please_ – join us, h-huh?" Said female, however, has directed all of her attention to that godly creation that is the lifeguard.

She'll probably never see him again after today, so what the hell?

There are currently three main plans that Juvia has.

Plan a) SUBTLETY. steal his pool noodle

Plan b) DIRECTNESS. ask for his number

Plan c) COINCEDENTAL. "drown"

Juvia doesn't like to seem like a person that would go out of her way to ask for someone's contact details, so B is definitely out. Plan A is also somewhat obvious if you think of it for a while – so that's out too.

All that leaves is C, which is, if you do it properly, 420% coincidental. _Yes_.

Ignoring Wendy's offer to play piggy-in-the-middle Juvia wades through the pool to the deep end. This is normal; she is not the only one doing this. No one is suspicious (yet).

It's when she's somewhat floating in the kinda deep but not really deep part of the pool, Juvia prepares herself for what probably will be the most stupid and embarrassing moment of her life.

(Juvia has actually qualified for exactly 23 swimming competitions in the span of her entire lifetime, but no one has to notice this. She is also certain that the lifeguard did _not_ see her expert-level butterfly as she made her way over.)

"AAH!" she screeches. "Someone-" _Snort._ "save me!" she says, thrashing her arms around. "I'm drowninnnnnggg!"

Juvia sneaks a peek at the lifeguard, he looks genuinely worried as he jogs over to help her, but before jumping into the pool, _he takes off his shirt._

Small equation, please.

 _If X = Hot lifeguard and y = Juvia, then what is a, b and c?_

 _Hot lifeguard(x) - shirt = skin_

 _= Skin x water + Juvia(y) = wet skin on wet skin_

 _= Hot lifeguard skin + Juvia(y) skin = lmao no_

Juvia abruptly coughs and splutters. (this time she really is close to drowning.)

When the lifeguard arrives, he is, however, laughing. Juvia coughs once ( _oh my god, is that my spit or water on his face?_ ) and asks him: "Why are you laughing? I'm _dying_."

"I'm sorry," he says, giggling (yes, _giggling_.) "You're kinda cute, you know." Juvia does a double take as she feels her face heating up. This is not ideal nope _nope nope nope n-_

"To be honest, I've been waiting for you to come up to me," he continues. "You keep _glaring_ in my direction, I thought I did something wrong."Juvia groans inwardly as her stomach twists at the memory. Ew.

"So, what's your name?" hot lifeguard interrogates. "I'm Gray."

"Juvia." The girl's eyes flicker toward hot lifeguard's – _Gray's_ eyes, breathless. "What a pretty name," he muses. "But not as pretty as you." Juvia splutters and is about to break away from his grasp (but she doesn't want to, you know – _he's really toned and it's nice and feels warm and safe and romantic and –_ )

"Well, I get off at around 3ish, will you still be here?"

"Yes." She replies all too quickly. "I mean – let me check my… schedule." Gray laughs (again) and Juvia kind of wants to kiss that obnoxiously large grin off his face.

* * *

FUN FACTS!

· Juvia pushed away three different women and one man who seemed like they had the same plan as her, as she was going toward the deep end.

· Two other people attempted to save her, but she kneed them in the crotch.

· Erza recorded everything.


End file.
